


Teeny Tiny OctoTony

by MountainRose



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, This is not my fault, octotony origin story, what is my life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1245634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainRose/pseuds/MountainRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony finds something in a HYDRA base, and it's about four inches tall and has a goatee.<br/>And tentacles. </p><p> </p><p>AN: I couldn't resist, I'm so sorry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Octopus on Roller Skates](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234528) by [ohmyloki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmyloki/pseuds/ohmyloki). 



> http://bootycap.tumblr.com/tagged/tentacletony/chrono
> 
> The inspiration behind this can be found ^there.

The tank was sitting on HYDRA-goon’s desk, and Tony wouldn’t even have noticed it if it hadn’t been plugged into the mainframe he was hacking at. The water was blue and clear, with a stream of bubbles flowing up the middle and around a round, pink...blob thing that looked distinctly organic. There was a very tiny heart rate trace hooked up to it, its screen no bigger than a pagers, pliping away at 210 beats per minute.

Tony eyed it sideways while JARVIS finished the automated part of the hack, but decided that the pod-shaped perspex probably meant it was contained and couldn’t... spit poison or whatever, if he looked away. He turned back to the computer, leaving the pod’s regulation software well alone.

“Cap, I’ve got the maps secured, sending them to you now,” Tony reported into his earpiece, dumping the files into the cloud.

“I see them. What about the defences?” Steve replied, grunting as his shield hummed in the background.

“Hold your panties, I’m cutting power in three... two... one.” Tony pulled the remote trips for the power, watching in satisfaction as the entire computer system, including the defences, blinked off one by one. He made copies of all the open projects on the armor, saving whatever the scientist had been working on most recently, before the shutdown reached the console. They’d recover the inactive data from the discs later, and this way there was no delete program that could... run and...

What?

The tank was running on reserves, its glow muted and air supply stopping, and without the shiny curtain of bubbles, Tony could see the little blob at its centre. He peered closer curiously, resting his chin on one hand as he watched the blob wriggling.

“What are _you_ , then?” he wondered aloud.

“Bwub!”

He jerked back, repulsors coming online with a whine; _little blobs had no right to peep at him!_ He should have saved a copy of the notes, somewhere, and he shrugged the helmet closed to have a look.

“ _Sir, I believe we have a problem...”_

Well that was ominous...

JARVIS had the files ready, and Tony flicked through them for words like ‘aggression rating’ and ‘toxicity’ but came to a screeching halt when he reached ‘A. E. Stark’.

He froze the scroll, scanning back to the beginning of the section, then down again and--

“ _\-- subject A. E. Stark sampled on XX/XX/XXXX at 38yrs, sample integrity, 98%. Procedure to splice sample with the HYDRA organism successful as of xx/xx/xxxx. Detailed report to follow. Conclusion of testing; Stark DNA compatible with organism, project COLOSSUS is go. Test organism stable as of xx+2/xx/xxxx--”_  

Tony sat in the armor as the data scrolled down, showing stability at two days, a week, and each week following for a _month_. If this... pod, incubator contained an unaccelerated clone, and it had to be, for its brain to develop, and everyone knew it was Tony’s brain that was useful, then it was--

The pod blubbed again, this time a little less powerfully. Tony turned slowly, half in shock, and found the tiny little heart monitor speeding up, the trace becoming frantic.

_Oh god, what’s a normal bpm for a month old foetus? Does this make me a dad or a brother why is it so small, are they always so small at a month? Or shouldn’t it just be a ball of cells? Oh god, I’ve killed it!_

Tony lurched forwards to try and find a power connecter he could hook himself to, JARVIS had all the regulation data; they should be able to rig something up before the internal variables drifted much furt--

The blob tore open down on side, a little cloud of red leaking out into the water and a _very very tiny_ face peered out. Two sets of fingers held the tear almost-closed around it, while big, sleepy eyes looked out at Tony and blinked.

_Brown. He’s got my eyes oh my god he’s so tiny what am I gonna tell Steve and ohhhhh pepper is going to be furious._

“bwub!” The tiny face poked out of the blob and let a bubble out of its mouth with the sound, looking from side to side with intense concentration, but all Tony could think was _it/he has a goatee. Why, I don’t understand why the goatee is important enough to program in._  

Apparently feeling safe enough to come out of his blob, the tiny little clone wriggled its way out, leaving a cloudy trail of rusty-red. It was still attached to the blob by its belly button, which was the last human feature on its tiny body; below the waist, it was almost entirely ‘HYDRA organism’. Its little red tentacles were curled tight against its bottom, each one a perfect geometric spiral. It/he looked sleepy, his mouth opening and closing with very quiet watery sounds as he rubbed his eyes with tiny, perfectly human fists.

“Oh my god... you’re full grown... just... let me get your bubbles back, okay? _Fuck._ ” Tony leaned over the pod and plugged himself into the power at the back. “There you go. Is that better?”

The heartbeat evened out and the thin cord shrivelled and drifted away from the clone and Tony realised that the red stuff was a smudge of blood, from the incubation process. His heart did a little one-two thing, because was this guy even supposed to wake up? Was he built to last?

 _Fuck_.

The base juddered with a distant explosion and Tony jerked out of his thoughts, tuning back into the mission map in the corner of his hud. Steve was halfway to the main power room, with its base-destruct mechanism, and Tony was supposed to have the discs pulled and ready for extraction in... Shit, two minutes ago.

“Alright, little guy, just, stay there. I gotta... yeah...” Tony broke off the server covers and started pulling the drives, piling them on the table for the rapidly approaching extraction team. The cable providing tinyTony with power for his bubbles was long enough to reach, just, but Tony rushed through anyway, bundling up the last useful drives and torching the rest with the repulsors.

“ _Shit_ shit, shit. They won’t-- JARVIS, are you, does he need life support? I don’t want SHIELD having this guy any more than HYDRA,” Tony babbled, clattering back to the pod and winding the cable back into his hip.

“ _Processing, sir._ ” The HUD flickered with graphs and data as J accessed the files stored in the suit, before reluctantly settling on a bunch of code that implied that tinyTony was independent, at least for now.

“Great, separate the HUD, neck brace and comm from the helmet shell, and eject.” The helmet hissed around his ears and he fumbled it off his head. “Water seal and power down.”

The helmet locked tight and the eye slits went dark. “Here goes nothing, kiddo. In you go...”

He cracked open the top of the pod and the little octopedal clone looked up through the bubbly surface of the water and lifted his arms like a toddler asking Steve for a hug. _I am so screwed he’s going to have Steve and pep wrapped around his little finger_

Tony carefully tipped a little of the water into the helmet, very carefully, and tinyTony drifted with the current, looking between the fall and Tony with a tiny frown on his face. “Shit, don’t look at me like that; I don’t know what I’m doing! _Fuck._ Alright, I’ll lift you down, okay?”

OctopedalTony blinked his big eyes and lifted his arms towards the surface again, but Tony’s big, clumsy gauntlet was way too hard to go anywhere near someone so _small_. He shed the armor, aware that the SHIELD agents clearing rooms out in the complex were getting closer, and dipped his hand into the pod. The water was warm, only just below skin temperature, and slightly thick, like it had something else suspended in it and -- _hello..._

The clone, tiny, barely the size of his palm, pulled himself up by Tony’s thumb, his little hands feeling warm and delicate. His tentacles coiled around Tony’s spread fingers, tiny suckers giving him a firm grip on index and ring fingers, and he tucked himself into Tony’s palm.

“ _Oh my god, oh my god, how are you so small. Shit...”_ Tony muttered to himself in a steady stream as he lifted octoTony out of the pod and then carefully over to the helmet. The clone sat upright as water trickled out of his mop of black hair, blinking drips the size of his tiny hands out of his eyes and taking a deep breath. He seemed to manage okay out of the water, but Tony wasn’t going to risk it for any longer than necessary and lowered him into the helmet. The clone patted the meaty bit of his thumb with a beaming smile and dropped into the dark of the helmet, his shadow appearing over the clear eye slits as he looked out.

“Bwub bwub bwub!”

Little bubbles appeared on the surface of the water. _Oh god,_ _I need Bruce. And Steve. What the hell am I doing?!_

 

_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_

 

“Tony! Put your helmet on, we’re not cleared yet!” Cap barked as Tony clanked towards the convoy of SHIELD prisoner transports and extraction vehicles. Tony sent him his best grin and kept his grip on the helmet firm.

“Got a situation, Cap. I’ll brief you on the ride home!” Tony called back, heading straight for the quinjet and dodging field-command as best he could. When he glanced down, a very wet example of Stark bed-head ‘bwubbed’ at him. Tony hid his nerves as best he could and hurried, before anyone noticed his helmet was occupied.

Bruce was waiting at the ‘jet, with the ramp down and a blanket around his shoulders.

“Bruce,” Tony said, abandoning his attempt to keep his body language casual. “Bruce, I need a consult, I found a cloning unit--”

Bruce squinted up at him in consternation. “Tell me there isn’t a baby in your helmet.”

“Uhhh... there isn’t a baby in my helmet?” Tony asked, sitting down on the stretcher bench next to Bruce and holding the helmet carefully in his lap. Octotony ‘bwubed’ his way above the surface, his hands curled over the edge and his hair poofing up all over the place, despite the water. A tentacle joined his hands over the edge, anchoring him in place despite the sloshing.

“Oh no... This is definitely worse...”

“You’ve gotta help me out, Bruce; he was in stasis, in an incubator, thing. I was the first thing he saw! HYDRA can’t have done anything... weird, right?”

“Tony. It’s a half-octopus clone of you. It is weird from both sides.” Bruce leaned down, pushing his glasses up his nose, and Tony resisted the urge to pull octoTony away. The little guy just blinked up in open-mouthed awe, making bwub’s at Bruce.

“I’ll need to see the incubator and its regime before I can tell you he’s not brainwashed, but at least he’s not poisonous.”

Tony swallowed nervously, ignoring the phantom sensation of suckers on his fingers. He hadn’t known octopuses could be poisonous.

“Tony, what is your-- oh boy...”

Tony whipped ‘round, breaking into a grin. “Steve! Good to see you! See, I found a thing, and rescued it from SHIELD, well, first from HYDRA, but then SHIELD, and he’s really small... and... Um... sorry?”

Steve looked pole-axed, kinda frozen, so Tony lifted the helmet slightly and showed him octoTony more clearly. The little guy, apparently having had enough of new people, blushed bright red across his miniscule nose and plopped down into his makeshift pool.

“...beard.” Steve’s mouth was hanging open. Tony did not know if this was a good thing. “So tiny.”

Tony pulled the helmet back and peered down into the water, tilting the arc reactor to light it up a little. Octotony was curled up at the bottom, hiding his face in his tentacles. “I think he’s... shy?”

“Is that safe? Does he need fresh water? Oh god, it’s going to slosh, it needs a lid, but, what about air? Does he need bubbles?” Steve babbled, suddenly. Tony looked up at him in shock; Steve was _mother henning the octotony._

“I’m monitoring the oxygen and temperature, I need to get back to the lab, though, because he’s only about ten minutes old, and made out of my crappy DNA.”

Steve sat down next to them, heavily. “Wh--... _how_?”

“I really have no idea, Steve, I swear.”


	2. Warmth

 “No; it’s a security breach to--”

“Natasha, _please_ , look at that face! How can you resist that face?” Tony whined, holding the helmet up for inspection. Tinytony had his hands on the edge of the cheek plate, peering over the rim of his makeshift tank with big, watery eyes.

“I learned how to resist your puppy face years ago, Stark,” she said, giving the little face the stink-eye. “A change in scale isn’t going to make it any different.” She didn’t look as sure as she sounded, though.

“Bwuubuu?” Tinytony said, dipping his mouth below the surface of the water to make a bubble and peering up through his eyelashes.

“Nat, don’t you think there’s been enough infringement of Tony’s basic rights for one day?” Steve asked, his tone deceptively relaxed. His arm, big and solid behind Tony’s back, was like steel. Steve was quietly _furious_.

Tony bristled, a sick feeling settling in his stomach. “Don’t, Steve. You make it sound like I was sexually assaulted or--”

“Weren’t you?” Steve replied, sharp. Tinytony sank back down into the bottom of the helmet, leaving a stream of bubbles in his wake.

“Not like _that!_ ” Tony whined, peering down into the dark water with a mournful expression. “It’s-- the sample’s from a few years ago, a bit of blood or hair, maybe. It wasn’t...”

“Tony...”

“Anyway! He’s mine now. I’m taking him to the tower, even if I have to fly the plane myself.” Tony met Natasha’s assessing look full-on, swallowing past the sensation of impending doom it caused.

“Alright, fine. But! We’re sending a cheek-swab to SHIELD. And he gets no tech until Bruce clears him.”

Tony agreed immediately, easing back against Steve in relief and clutching the helmet against his stomach. He’d taken the armor off while they were waiting for the base to be cleared. The immense power of the armor so close to something so delicate had felt intensely dangerous. His shirt was already slightly damp and sticky from the little splashes and drips Tinytony made when he peered over the edges but Tony couldn’t mind, not even a little bit.

“Hey, little guy, it’s okay...” Steve murmured, curling around Tony’s shoulder to peer down into the helmet as Natasha knocked the jet into something resembling flight-worthy. They’d strapped the headless suit into a chair and Clint and Bruce were nearly done with gluing closed a gash on the archer’s hip. Once Nat had finished pre-flight, they’d be good to go.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound harsh,” Steve continued, his free hand touching the helmet and his thumb doing that soothing sweeping thing right on the edge. A bubble drifted up from the indistinct shape at the bottom and popped at the surface with a little ‘plip’ sound.

“Can he understand English, do you think?”

Tony blinked; he hadn’t thought about it but... “Maybe. The beard is--... He’s so small though... Imagine what our voices must sound like.”

Steve ‘hmmmm’ed, eyes fixed on the little glint of light let in through the emergency eye slits. There was a wriggly tentacle stuck to the crystal, just the very tip. “You’re secure?” Steve asked as Nat brought the engines online.

Tony tightened his grip and nodded; they’d be fine.

Eventually, when they were in stable flight,  Bruce convinced Tinytony to surface and suck on a Q-tip. It was almost the size of his entire fist, and Tinytony did his level best to _keep_ it.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Once they arrived back at the Tower, Bruce brought a second sample kit from the toolbox with them to the common room. Steve diverted to the armor platform to pour the empty suit into JARVIS’ waiting claws, and Tony slumped onto a couch with zero grace.

“I need to take a sample of his water, test it for pH and salinity,” Bruce asked, waving a gilson pipette and sample pot at Tony.

Tony squinted uncertainly at Bruce. “I have it all on file, why do you need to test it? Can’t you just put together some more?” 

“Pardon me for not trusting HYDRA’s bookkeeping, okay? It’s just a few centilitres,” Bruce said in his best reassuring voice. Tony could be pretty sure he was in medic mode when he used that voice, generally trustworthy.

“Okay, sure. And _then_ you can replicate it?” Tony asked, easing up on his deathgrip on the helmet

“I can determine whether he needs a marine tank or not, yes. Hey there,” Bruce murmured as he drew up a sample with the sprung loaded pipette. Tinytony reached for the instrument with open curiosity on his face but Bruce took it away before he could get a sucker attached. He sighed out a long stream of bubbles and floated just beneath the surface of the half-empty helmet.

“He almost certainly won’t need this stuff now that he’s awake.” Bruce emptied the pipette and capped off the sample pot with a one-handed maneuver that made it look like _he_ was the one with wriggly appendages. “I think it’s a bit like amniotic fluid; see how it’s thicker than water?”

Tony had noticed that when he decanted Octotony in the first place, but he hadn’t thought of it as...pregnancy stuff. It made sense though. He felt like he should maybe be grossed out by it --it was, after all, all over his shirt-- but he wasn’t. Tinytony rolled over in the water and swam to the edge closest to Tony with a flurry of wriggling.

“I-- yeah. Makes sense... He was in an egg, I have vid-- that is really distracting, what are you doing, you’ll fall...” Tony’s thoughts derailed completely as Octotony pulled himself up, out of the water and onto the lip of the helmet. He got a tiny fistfull of Tony’s shirt with one hand, and suckered tightly to the glossy faceplate. Tony put a hand behind him, just to keep him steady on the thin edge and Octotony bweeped at him, shifting his grip from the helmet to Tony’s little finger.

“Here, let me...” someone said. The weight of the helmet left his lap, freeing his other hand to cup underneath Octotony’s legs, and there was the distant sound of glugging as they poured the water out into a big bowl.

He was _warm_. And soft, his little tentacles curling around Tony’s fingers as he settled delicately in his hands.

“Bwub bwub,” he said, seriously, looking up at Tony with both palms planted on his chest.

_“He alright? He looks_ drugged. _”_

_“Bit overwhelmed, he’ll be fine.”_

“You were cold... ‘m sorry. Shoulda known, didn’t leave any padding in the helmet,” Tony mumbled down at him, curling his hand around Octotony’s back make a little warm bubble for him.

“Tony? Is he warm blooded?” Bruce asked, planting a hand on Tony’s shoulder.

“Yeah. He’s cold. ‘s okay, he’s breathing alright,” Tony said, not taking his eyes off Octotony as he, happier than he was a minute ago, snuggled down into Tony’s palm with a happy, air-breathing sigh. “Don’t think he should get dry though...” Tony thought aloud, stroking the delicate skin of his tentacles with his little finger.

“Probably not.”

_“Steve, could you fetch the waterbath off my bench? It’s labled with a big ‘thirty-seven degrees’.”_

_“Sure, I’ll be right back.”_

_“Waterbath?”_

_“Hmm. Regulated temperature, with an adjustable thermostat.”_

_“Right. I knew that.”_

His --Tinytony’s-- suckers were strong, he could feel them through his metalworking calluses. The muscles in his legs were strong too, clinging on around his fingers while the little guy got himself settled, pressed against Tony’s palm for warmth.

“We’ll get you up to temp, keep you happy...” Tony mumbled.

Tinytony blinked up at him, his eyes huge and curious, then examined him from hair to sternum with a quietly serious gaze. Tony awaited his judgment, strangely tense, and Tinytony pointed with one perfect little hand, and covered his heart with the other.

“Bwub.”

_“He’s gonna pop.”_

_“Clint! He’s fine, just--”_

“Oh my god... I can’t--” Tony’s brain stuttered to a halt at the worried expression on Tinytony’s face and-- “STEVE! STEVE I CAN’T. _STEVE...!”_

_“See, what’d I tell you. There he goes.”_

_“Just... fetch me the salt, and_ shut up _.”_

Steve jogged back into the room, a waterbath under one arm and alarm splashed liberally across his face. Tony twisted in his seat and held Tinytony out towards him

“Steve, I _can’t;_ He’s too _... cute!_ _And TINY!_ Here, you...” Tony held his hands out insistently, his whole body leaning towards Steve, while Tinytony peered out over his fingers at Steve.

“Alright, settle down,” Steve ordered with enough amused irritation to make Tony bristle. He set the waterbath on the table and sat next to Tony, pressed all along his side and gently cupping Tony’s hands back towards his chest. Tony heart, pounding in the back of his throat, eased off and he let himself lean on Steve.

“I... I have a _kid_.”

Steve ‘hmmm’ed quietly, not quite agreeing, but not saying no either, and watched as Tinytony reached out to put a hand on his thumb.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A collection of Octotony shorts from Tumblr. Thanks to Starkwest and Szzzt for prompting some of these, and thank you anonski's for the rest!

Bruce made a trip to an aquatics centre, tucked in the back of a pet shop, with a list. Dechlorinating chemicals were high up on it, and a tank, and something nice to sit on. Maybe a hidey hole or two. 

The shop is warm and humid, the light mostly coming from the bluish glow of the tanks themselves. There’s a huge tank full of ‘live rock’, corals and anemones, but he avoids it for now. He heads straight for the marine salt and dry ornaments when he spots them, and tumbles a load into his basket. Tinytony is a gorgeous red-brown colour, delicate and unscaled, so he picks out a natural slate hideyhole that’s been rubbed down to smooth the edges. 

Bruce stands at the next rack for longer than is probably sensible. It’s full of intricate baubles and tchotchkes made of resin. He hasn’t had time to do any kind of cognitive assessments on Tinytony. Does he need toys? 

He shakes himself out of it, and goes to buy a tank and some sand. 

He’ll bring Tony next time, for now, he just needs to get the basics.

\-----

"There you go… Is that okay?" Tony asked, waiting for Tinytony to let go of his hand. He held it still in the warm water while the little guy thought about it, shifting his tentacles and unsuckering one by one. The tank was clear, with a stream of bubbles in one corner, and the soft sand on the bottom that was supposed to be good for tentacles. It was ivory and silky-smooth against the back of Tony’s fingers; if he didn’t like it, they could change it? Maybe that was why he was so slow to let go. 

"…bwub?" Or maybe he was scared… Tinytony looked up through the surface at him, imploringly, and clung to Tony’s thumb. 

"No, nonono, it’s fine, I won't go anywhere! I’ll stay, okay? until you’re fine?" Tony babbled, setting his arm more firmly on the edge of the tank and letting his hand rest on the bottom. 

"Bweeee." 

The tank was fairly open, maybe that was a problem. You could see clear across the room from most of it, maybe that was just too much space, too exposed. There was a house, for sleeping in, padded with something Bruce called geotextile, and Tinytony leaned towards it for a good look, stretching to the end of his grip on Tony’s hand. 

"Yeah, that’s for you, nice and safe, and right next to the heater." 

Tinytony perked up at the word ‘heater’ and dared to let go, swooshing towards the house slowly. Tony wriggled his fingers after him with a bemused smile. His fingers tingled where the suckers had been. 

Tinytony poked his head into the slate house, his hands holding the vertical element in a really familiar way, then swam around behind it to look at the water heater. 

"BWEEbebebbweeeb!" 

Tony let out an involuntary laugh, slumping in relief at the happy, excited little sound. “Yeah, pretty interesting huh? The coil’s in glass, would you believe it?” He mumbled, leaning over on the counter to look through the short side of the tank. The little guy was twisting the thermostat control, one tentacle on the warm glass.

“Hey, watch it, okay? I don’t know how hot that gets.” 

“Ahbwuuuble,” Tinytony dismissed, setting the control to...72 degrees and swarming back down the heater to rub his cheek briefly against the glass.

Squinting with one eye at the tank dimensions, then doing the same through a different wall of the tank to gauge the distortion, Tony decided that the little guy needed a touchscreen and...what was the octopus equivalent of a couch?

\---------

Tony felt bad, closing the tank lid from the outside, so at first, he just straight up objected to using a hood. 

“You’ll end up having to add water constantly, and--” 

“That’s better though, right? We’ll be changing the water every day, he already has plans for an automatic doser-mixer for the saline.” 

Bruce blinked, looked over at the tank with its computer screen and the trail of water down the side, where Tinytony had crawled down the glass, and followed the trail to Steve’s breakfast plate, where they were sharing a kipper. 

“Why don’t we ask the littleone, it’s his house.” 

Tinytony wanted the hood. The thing was, though, that it latched. And Tinytony couldn’t open it from the inside. Eventually, Tony took a pair of jewelers pliers and a tin nipper to the lid and turned the latch inside out; Tinytony could latch them out if he wanted to, but no one could lock him in. It was symbolic, because they could just lift off the lid entirely if they needed to, but it made him feel better. Made him feel like Tinytony was safe.

It took a while for the little guy to use the latch as anything other than a way of saying ‘I’m going to bed now’, but eventually he started venturing out into the air without Steve or Tony’s assistance. Just for little trips around the bar, investigating objects and food left out, before he’d wriggle back home. 

Nat, one afternoon, was sitting at the marble with a bowl of cereal when he made one of his exploratory trips. He bwubed at her from a foot away, his hair dripping down his back as he looked up at her questioningly. 

"Hello. What do you want." 

He edged forwards, one leg at a time, watching to see if she would do anything to stop him. She didn’t, curious and unthreatened. 

Inch by inch, leaving droplets of water behind him, he edged up to her wrist and laid a tentacle on the bone, just ahead of her bracelet. She raised an eyebrow at him and he shrank away, curling his tentacles under himself and folding his hands in front of his waist. 

She rolled her eyes and shifted her hand a little closer in permission. Octotony lit up in genuine surprise, smiling open-mouthed and reaching out with his hands to touch the bracelet. 

The beads were glass, black but clear, and Octotony turned one around the string over and over, feeling the seams from the mold, the edge of the hole in the middle. 

Soon, he had climbed up onto her wrist, investigating each bead in turn and measuring the size against his hand, trying to see if they were all the same. As he progressed, she turned her wrist over, palm up, to let him count them all, and started to smile, just a little bit, with her chin propped on her free hand. 

"Here, if they’re so interesting…" She plucked at the fastening deftly, letting the string slide to the marble. He followed, freeing her wrist, and she pulled at the knots that kept the beads in place. 

"One, just one. Choose." 

He blinked up at her, examining the string, then chose the one at the end, where she wouldn’t have to unstring them all. 

"You are… very considerate." She slid the bead off, letting it tik-tik-tick on the marble, then slid it into his reach with a forefinger. "There. Yours." 

He picked it up with his hands, and held it the right way up, in front of his chest, grinning. 

She hadn’t realized he knew the significance of heart shapes.

**\--------**

Bigtony was _doing it wrong,_ Tony thought, shifting his suckers against Bigtony’s neck in agitation. 

"Bweeeeee!" He pointed to the smaller soldering iron, which would work _much_ better for the pins they were working on. 

"No can do, buddy, it’s broken," Bigtony said, turning to nudge him with his cheek. Tony refused the affection with a low peep, hunkering down and suckering on hard enough to leave marks. 

He could fix it, of course, it was probably the thermocouple; all it’d take was five minutes and a bit of flux! 

"Ow, Jesus, you’re like a bad ex. Stop that," Bigtony grumbled, the muscles under Tony going tense. 

Tony eased up, shuffling over onto Bigtony’s collar and smoothing over the marks with his palms. “Bwoooweeeb…” 

"No, yeah, I’m sorry too. You alright up there?" Bigtony asked, putting the iron away and flipping off the power. "I think we’re done, anyway."

"BWUB," Tony said, frowning up at Bigtony very seriously. He was lucky he hadn’t fried the transistors completely, bumbling about like a giant idiot.

"Yeah, you’re right; bad tools make a bad job. We’ll fix the little one." Bigtony looked at his watch, (they hadn’t found one Tony’s size yet, but that was okay) and turned it so Tony could see; it was late, Bigstebe would be worried. 

"You want a drink? We’ve been at it a while."

Tony glanced down at his tentacles, which were dry, but not uncomfortable, and shrugged with a casual bwub. He could do with a soak. 

"Alright, lemme get you a cup."

**\--------**

Tony held the strip of magnesium to the join and twisted the ignition with a leg. It flared up, bright enough to finally make a dent in the black glass Bigtony had insisted he wear over his face. The spark of white hot flame was enough, even with the water swirling and taking away some of the heat, to melt the solder in place. 

“Buwubwee!” He called, dropping the magnesium torch to the sand and burying it to extinguish the flames. 

“Nice! How’s the thermal gradient?”

“Abwubuwn,” he replied, patting his leather apron. It had done its job and kept to hot water runoff from touching him. 

“Great. Now I have a few ideas for an insulating paste that—” Bigtony gave him a hand up out of the work tank and they went back to the drawing board for the next stage.

**\--------**

Tony woke up to an unfamiliar sound from Tinytony’s bed, in his tank. 

This was particularly strange, because the little guy liked to sleep out in the livingroom, with the natural light of sunrise and the moon and New York light pollution, and Tony had to sleep in the pitch black, so all he could see was the blue wash of the arc. 

Which meant that JARVIS was piping the sound through. 

Tony scrambled to his feet, blanket flying, and scrambled over discarded clothes and shoes to get to the door without breaking his neck. 

Tinytony was crying. 

He made enough noise, racing down the corridor, to wake half the team, but he didn’t even think of it, because now he was awake, he could feel his tiny counterpart’s distress. It wasn’t pain, or, at least, not physical pain, but it hurt all the same, and Tony was by the tank in less that thirty seconds. 

He forced himself to slow down, because the little guy was delicate, and dipped his hand into the water. Even in the dark, Tinytony found him immediately, curling around his fingers and hugging his thumb tight. 

"Hey. hey… I gotcha…You okay? What happened?" 

Tinytony bwubbed at him, hiding his face against Tony’s PJs. 

"Oh, hey, they’re just dreams, I’m used to it…" 

That earned him a glare and a damp smack.

"Yeah, I know, I’m sorry...” 

An image of warm-close-cramped associated with a hard knock and then sudden stillness made Tony’s nose wrinkle. 

“Brruubblbllw.” 

“Yeah, no. I hear you. Let’s hang out on the couch for a bit, here.” He pulled off his shirt, Tinytony switching hands so he didn’t have to fight his way through a sleeve, and then held him to his chest. Tiny arms detached from his thumb and suckered onto his chest, Tinytony’s miniature palms resting on the reactor casing.

\-------

Clint and Nat didn’t intrude, once they saw what was going on. It was weird, seeing Tony cradling something as if it was irreplaceable. He wasn’t even that careful when someone got injured; there was always the assumption they’d heal. 

It was good to see him taking care of himself, even if it was just a little piece.

Clint nudged Nat on the shoulder as he turned back towards his room and she flicked him away like a bug, settling in to watch Tony instead. Clint shrugged and padded away, vowing to make sure the little guy had his eggs just perfect in the morning.

\----------- 

Mind control was something that came in right from the beginning of the Avengers. Clint had been the first, and they’d all agreed that the big scary ‘how to fuck my shit up’ meeting was necessary, just in case it happened to one or more of them again. 

Tony was easiest to stop; take away the suit, the tech, his access, but Natasha thought he’d be the most dangerous in the meantime. The Hulk was the hardest, because there was fuck all that’d stop him, but there was a limit to the amount of damage he could do. Mainly because he was stuck on one continent, with his fists and very little brain. 

So, Tony was feeling unsafe as they rode back from the ‘carrier. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to put up safeguards against anyone using the tactics they’d hashed out, but on the other he didn’t want to put up safeguards against his teammates. 

When they landed, Tinytony was waiting on the bar with a hellacious little scowl, obviously having felt Tony’s discomfort. That was a point; if anyone wanted to pressure Tony, they just had to get hold of his little counterpart… 

Tinytony held his hands up demandingly and Tony scooped him up, feeling safer the second the tiny little tentacles were safely cupped inside his hands. 

"I’m just gonna head off—" 

"No, Tony; that meeting was traumatic," Nat said, "we need to sit down and be a team for a while."

Tony’s shoulders tensed and he hunched over Tinytony, who gurgled into his chest and papped the arc reactor. “I just need a second, get my head on straight.” 

"Nat’s right, Tony, we split up now, all we’ll think about is how to take each other down," Steve added, looking ruffled but no less threatening for having taken his cowl off. god, it's a bad day when you find Steve threatening. fuck. 

"I—" 

Tinytony bapped him on the chest with a fist and chattered at Steve; he was fine, he felt safe as houses inside Bigtony’s hands, and Tony had to admit, having a proxy to yell at Steve made him feel less like snapping at him, himself. 

Steve, on the other hand, looked mortified, and backed off a step. Tony never knew how much of Tinytony the others understood, because he didn’t use words, but Tony always knew what he meant anyway. Apparently, Steve was a ‘big meanie’ and should ‘go far away’ where Tinytony hoped he’d ‘dry out in the sun and go crispy’. 

"Okay, okay… c’mon little guy, we’ve got more self control than that… Sorry Steve, we’re just gonna take a bath and calm down, okay? Promise I won't plot your demise in the meantime."

This time, Steve didn’t say anything as he turned to leave. 

"We’re an ass," he muttered to Tinytony as he reached his bedroom and locked the door behind them. Tinytony squeaked sadly and curled up in his palms, one hand reaching out to touch the arc reactor. Tony pulled him closer, against the warmth of the reactor, and felt a bit warmer himself.

Tony gave them a few minutes, gently stroking Tinytony’s hair and listening to the slow burble of aimless chatter. Eventually, when he was feeling less shaken, Tinytony stood up on his tentacles and made a kissy face. Tony laughed in a broken off way and leant down so Tinytony could kiss him on the cheek and pat his nose.

"Bath?"

"BWeeeep!" 

By the time they were clean and rehydrated, Tinytony had relaxed enough, and Tony was calm enough, for the little guy to get some sleep, and Tony let him stay suckered to his chest while he went out to make peace with the team.

\-------

"Come on, little guy, you’ve been out for twenty hours!" Steve wheedled, his chin resting on the bench so he was eye level with Tinytony. "Tony’s started to itch, you must feel terrible…” 

Tinytony’s tentacles looked limp and pale, dried out, and he was leaning tiredly on his inch-long tool box. The phone he’d been working on was almost complete. Or at least, it looked physically assembled, with all the tiny clips and screws holding it together. It didn’t have a case yet, but that wouldn’t take Tony long to fit. Tinytony blinked up at him in something approaching irritated bemusement and tucked his hands into his armpits while they stared each other down. His hair was sticking between the lenses of his goggles up in wild tufts, dried stiff with salt, and his eyes were red where the frames had pressed before he’d pushed them up. Even his neoprene shirt had dried out.

"I promise, it’ll all be here in the morning, just… come get something to eat, and have a soak." 

Tinytony folded with a quiet ‘bweee’ and tugged the goggles off the top of his head. He put them in their special case —the coverslips he’d used to make the lenses were very delicate— and closed up the toolbox. The tools he’d made were too small for anyone but him to handle, so he was always so careful to put them away. Steve sat up and reached for the dish of salty water at the back of the bench; if he didn’t wet his hands before picking Tinytony up when he was like this, it’d just make everything worse, and Tony would yell at him again. He cupped his hands so they wouldn’t drip and waited for Tinytony to finish latching his toolbox.

"Bwoooee…" Tinytony said once he was done, lifting his arms to be picked up. 

"Easy…"Steve scooped his hands on either side of Tinytony’s legs and he lifted them onto Steve’s fingers. His suckers didn’t stick, though, and he tumbled into Steve’s palm with a little huff of frustration. "Sorry! Sorry… It’s okay, I’ve got you." 

Tinytony ended up lying across Steve’s palms, nearly asleep, while Steve carried him upstairs, where Steve had a tube of aloe waiting next to his tank.


End file.
